Stories from the Shadows
by Lunatique
Summary: A collection of side stories and spillovers from Shadow of the Dragon King.
1. A Night's Work

Note: This is a collection of side stories, deleted scenes, and offshoots from the main story _Shadow of the Dragon King_. They don't fit into the pace of the main story and mainly feature original rather than canon characters, so I've decided to separate them out. They're generally in chronological order, though some stories might go back into the past.

The first of these stories is "Patching Up," which I have posted to LJ due to explicit content. It features Shun and Cheng before the final scene of Chapter 12, and is located here:

lunafana livejournal com 13663 html

The following story, "A Night's Work," takes place between the end of Chapter 14 "Confrontations" and the beginning of Chapter 15 "Bargains."

**Warnings:** Coarse language, partial nudity, sexual innuendo

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**Stories from the Shadows**

**A Night's Work**

Ozai Year Three / Ji Lian 109, Second Moon of Fire

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Two shadowed figures walked around the edge of the courtyard, under the eaves of buildings whose windows were pools of night.

"Over here, sir!"

Cheng and Hong hurried to the guardsmen to join the indistinct outlines in a cluster of jostling shoulders and mingled breaths.

"No movement from the target." The guardsman who had called to Cheng indicated the west wing of the palace for noble guests, its golden roof glimmering under the moon. "We are in position and ready to move."

A piece of the night behind him moved and separated itself out to become a man. "I bring word from his Highness."

"Shun." Cheng's voice was flat.

"He requests a private interview before the subject is processed through official channels." Shun indicated the others behind him. "I came with three of the detail to secure him."

"Wonderful." Her teeth glinted in the dark. "We are only too happy to accommodate his Highness, of course."

Shun gave a bow. "Thank you."

"Send the signal." Cheng turned to Hong. "We're ready to go."

Hong walked into the faint moonlight. A flame appeared in his cupped hands, lighting his face. Another flame glimmered from a window to the right of the wing, and another from its left. Hong closed his hands, extinguishing the fire, and the other signals disappeared in an instant.

"Let's move." The clump of shadows bulged out into the open, splitting into distinct forms in the broader space.

Cheng did not turn to look at Shun behind her. "Our guests from the Prince's security detail have no need to join us."

"We're here to support you, ma'am." He trailed her at a distance just out of sword's reach.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Just stay on my tail."

"Always." He did not keep the laughter from his voice.

Her eyes glared white before she broke into a trot with the others. The first shouts of "Royal Security Service!" crashed into the stillness, and along with it the screaming, the slamming doors, the shouts, and the swish of flames. The night fractured into pieces that skittered away for whatever safety there might exist before the terrible flaming light.

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The door to the bedroom banged open to admit a stream of indistinct forms. The pandemonium of the hallway poured in with them, the defiance and distress outside mingling with the languor and heat in the room.

"Rang Han." The foremost of the intruders strode to the canopied bed, the blade in his hand a crescent in the dimness. "You are under arrest for-"

A flash of white sliced across the half-light as the man reached for the bed, and he leapt back with a curse. Confusion answered him, and then the darkness narrowed into shadows as a flame sparked into existence.

The girl's shadow swung across the bed as the flame grew to its full size in the guardsman's hand. The knife in her hand, darkened with a thin stream of red, blazed in the firelight where she stood between the guardsmen and the bed.

"Shit!" Cheng's eyes widened at the sight of her. She knocked aside the firebender's hand, killing the light with a sputter of flame.

"Out." The waving of her arm dragged a frantic shadow across the room. "Get out, all of you!" The men shuffled back, muttering to one another.

"She cut me." Shun didn't move next to her. The metallic smell of blood tinged the air.

"Serves you right for barging in ahead of the firebenders." Cheng pushed him in the chest. "Out."

"But she cut me! What's she doing here and why's she look like that little girl T-"

His voice cut off with a swing of Cheng's arm and the smack of flesh on flesh. Cheng walked past him where he stood in stunned silence, and slammed the door on the rest of her men.

"You hit me." Shun rubbed his mouth.

"Yes, we are all impressed with your talent for stating the obvious." Cheng crossed the room to thrust open a window, letting in a blot of moonlight and the commotion of a disturbed household. "And for saying things better left unsaid."

"You're not taking him away like this." The young woman's bedrobe was half open and the thin material clung to her, doing little to hide a build that indicated she was in her late teens. The rounded contours of her face and huge eyes made her seem younger.

"Actually we are, my lady." Cheng crossed her arms and leaned against the windowsill. "He needs to answer for what he's done, and you need to return home to your mother."

"She's right, dear." Both Cheng and Shun tensed at the voice that came from the blackness under the canopy. "You should go home once Royal City's finest are gone. Sergeant Cheng will see to it that you leave without being seen." The bed shifted as Rang sat up, one bare arm luminescent in the distant light. "Won't you, Sergeant?"

"Of course, sir." Cheng's gaze strayed to the flawless skin.

"No." The young woman shook her head, her brown hair flying. "I won't let you!" She slid a foot forward with her knees bent, the knife a gleam of light in her hand.

Shun took an answering step forward, but Cheng walked past him with a hand against his chest. "Stay back. It's not worth your life to leave a bruise on this one."

"Draw your sword," Shun said to her back.

"Don't need it." Cheng approached the bed step by unhurried step. Her eyes never left the girl's. "Here's what I think this is about. I think right now you'd fight and die to prove you weren't wrong about him. Well, you know what?"

She came to a stop in easy striking distance. "He wasn't worth it. You made a mistake."

The girl lunged with a cry caught between belligerence and pain. Shun broke into a run, but before he completed the first stride Cheng had sidestepped the attack and grabbed hold of the girl's wrist. A hard yank, and the knife clattered to the floor.

The noblewoman tried to dive for it, but Cheng refused to release her and spun her around to wrench the arm behind her back. They fell across the foot of the bed with Cheng on top, pushing her writhing opponent down by the head and arm. The men watched as though they were incapable of looking away.

"Stay still, you silly gosling." Cheng leaned into her grip on the noblewoman's arm, drawing a yelp of pain. "So you bedded a traitorous piece of shit." Her voice grew quiet as if she spoke to herself. "Life goes on."

Shun lowered his gaze while the girl's struggles slackened. The beginning of a wail muffled itself in the mattress.

"Take him away, Guardsman." Cheng kept her hold on the weeping young woman, but eased the pressure on her arm.

Shun found Rang's robe draped over a chair and tossed it to him. Rang took his time threading his arms through the sleeves, watching the entangled women with a connoisseur's interest.

Shun followed Rang's line of sight. "Fire Nation women are crazy."

"Indeed." Rang closed the robe around himself. "I shall miss them."

"You can start missing them right now." Shun hauled him from the bed with enough force that the bedrobe fell open in the process. His jaw clenched at Cheng's hum of appreciation.

Rang belted the robe around his waist. "You seem overeager, Guardsman. Patience is an underappreciated virtue."

"Shut up." Shun grasped his shoulder and pushed him ahead. "You have an appointment to keep."

"Han..." The girl sat up in bed while Cheng kept an eye on her, her robe in disarray and hair down in front of her eyes.

"Go home and forget all this, sweetpuff." Rang smiled over his shoulder. "I hope it was as good for you as it was for me."

The girl started shaking as the men left the room, and tears left new trails down her face. She slumped into herself as the sobs came, and Cheng put an arm around her. After a feeble attempt to push her away the noblewoman collapsed against her, burying the sound of her misery in the embrace.

"Everything's under control," Cheng called in response to inquiries from the hallway. "Don't come in, we're not decent." She chuckled at the answer.

"Clear out, men. You did good work." She held the girl close. "Drinks are on me." She sat with her charge as the guards left, the darkness growing deeper as the lights went out and peace returned to the night.

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Note: Incidentally "night work (밤일)" is a colloquial Korean term for sex, especially regular sex between committed couples. "Ji Lian (刏连: severed continuity)" is an age name I made up for the era of Avatar Aang_._

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_Next: A letter from a friend_


	2. Ming's Letter

Note: This was originally the letter that was going to be in Yenzi's scene of Chapter 20: Letters, but I swapped in the current version because it was more workable. I decided to post this to the side stories collection instead. The scene that was originally going to be here has now been "upgraded" to an interlude in the main story, to be posted between Chapters 20 and 21 after beta-reading.

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Hello Yenzi,

You have no idea how many different ways I've started this letter. "Dear Miss Tien" seemed too formal, and "Hi kid" seemed too forward. Tell me if you have a preference for future correspondence. Yes, there will be other letters: You're not getting rid of me now that I know where to write, prison duty is horribly slow and writing helps pass the time.

Yes, I ended up in prison after all. It's funny how I've worked so hard to avoid this place, yet here I am. They decided I'm not fit for active duty with my injuries. Also there were some changes in the capital recently, and I couldn't hope to get the most competitive postings.

Something else that's funny: Now that I'm actually here it's not as bad as I thought. It's boring, but there's guard work for you. There's a lot of waiting around, looking for trouble until your eyes go numb. Once in a while something does happen and then you realize how nice the boredom is. Mostly I try to be good to people. That brightens my day, and a little light goes a long way here.

I don't need to tell you what guard duty is like, though, I'm sure you're seeing it for yourself. I can't say I envy where you are, but you're a smart girl and I'm sure you'll be fine. I don't know if I can advise you to be nice, since that could be a violation of official policy for all I know, but do what you can to make things work for you.

So tell me about life at your post, because I don't want to talk all about me me me. Since I don't know anything about things over there, though, I'll be full of myself just a little longer.

You asked about my arm in your last letter. I'm actually writing with it now; the doctor thinks it'll help as long as I don't overdo it. I've gotten a lot of the motion and control back, but the chi flow is still choked up and I can't really firebend yet. It's another reason I've ended up here. It's helped me learn some things: I never knew the base pay for non-benders is lower than for benders, for instance. I'm starting to realize what my non-bender friends were complaining about, though to be perfectly truthful I could have done without knowing.

And please don't feel bad about it, Yenzi. I didn't write to make you feel like slag, but to tell you how I'm doing. I want you to know, clear as day, I don't regret a single thing. At all. In what world is my firebending, or for that matter my arm, more important than a child's life? Oh no, I got an owie and I might not shoot fire for a while. The sun is falling! It's the end of the world!

Seriously. Stop apologizing. You have nothing to be sorry about unless you pushed your brother into that fire to make me rescue him, in which case I will be both mad and sort of impressed.

A few words about mutual acquaintances, though I don't know how well you remember them. Master Lu, Prince Zuko's teacher, actually left prison on the day I arrived. His family and Deng Sa Ye, if you remember her, came to get him. The guards from Azhoran who also got thrown in here left with him. Master Lu and Sa Ye are going to the Colonies, too, though it's farther north than where you are. The Azhoran guards are making noise about sailing with Prince Zuko, and maybe they will. I hope he returns safely, with the Avatar or by the Firelord's grace. And that's all I'll say about that.

I should go now. Write me back when you have the time, and take care.

Ming Leixian

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_Next: In the wake of the battle of Beiyang, a commander ponders his next step._


	3. Flotsam

Note: This one follows from a situation in Chapter 19. Warning for crude language and reference to rape.

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"So how many've we got?" Chang Chongshik, First Assault Commander of the Stone Fists, leaned back in his seat at the table and locked his hands behind his head. Sunlight streamed into the dusty room through cracks in the walls.

"Two hundred, give or take." San Tiao, his aide, consulted a scrawled ledger. "Some of them look like goners, though, after the march here. I guess we went a little too hard on that beach, on a bunch of lightweights."

"Hell yeah, we hit hard." Chang struck the tabletop with a crack, leaving a fracture across the stone surface. "We haven't seen decent action in months."

San clucked his tongue at the damaged table. "With any luck our haul should mend that problem. I'm trying to get a feel for where these kids are coming from. Maybe I'll find an officer in the bunch or a chip off some noble family, someone who's worth something."

"You're wasting your time." Chang waved a dismissive hand. "You think they'd throw anyone important at us like so much gravel? Nah, we go bulk with this lot or they won't be worth the trouble we took to fish them out."

"So what do we do with them? We can't stay in this abandoned old place forever, there's nothing here except what we brought. And with Beiyang gone, who knows if the Earth King's going to pay us enough to last the month."

"Hey, Beiyang wasn't on us. We warned Ba Sing Se the real attack must be coming from land, and they should have marched out to waylay the Reds." He put his bare feet on the tabletop. "If they weren't getting off their asses to defend their north coast, I wasn't about to stick around and get my men killed."

"Now the prisoners are all we have to show for it." San played with his writing brush. "How do we even feed the extra mouths, the way we're going?"

"They'll have to do without, won't they. Let them get a taste of what they're dealing everybody else." Chang wriggled his mud-caked toes. "Maybe we could sell the whole lot to one of those copper mines. Not that they'll fetch such a good price—these Fire boys break down too fast."

"What about the girls? The mercs were asking about them and-"

"The sandbugs want some action, they can choke on my dick and die. Tell them that from me."

"_You_ tell them." San's glance was resentful. "I've seen them drown men on dry land."

"What'll I do to see the back of these creepers... Anyway, I'm holding the prisoners close. Their precious homeland might want them back, and there's no gold like ash-maker gold." Chang swung his legs down from the table and placed his chin on a scarred fist, thinking.

"Ever the optimist." San made a few notes on his ledger.

Chang nodded to himself and stood with his hands braced on the table. "We're going south, to Chaylar. We can start from there and circle the farmlands of Ba Sing Se."

"And live off the land?" Still writing, San gave an amused sort.

"Those Fire Nation supply lines won't raid themselves. And I figure the Earth King won't mind too much if we supplement our provisions from the food baskets of his city." Chang grinned.

"He might even take the hint and pay us. Maybe enlist us in an attempt to take back Beiyang, to get us off his yard."

"At least three different attempts, or my mother's birthed a fool." A laugh burst from deep in Chang's chest. "And each time it'll fall apart while the generals and provinces kick each other in the head. What a time we live in!"

"And the prisoners are coming with us, Commander?" San stood, organizing his notes.

"Until we can get them off our hands or leave their bones by the road, whichever's quicker." Chang slapped San on the back. "Tell the boys we move out in an hour."

Chang threw himself back in his chair while his aide walked out the door, which hung askew in its frame. A contented look on his face, he propped his feet on the table and clasped his hands over his stomach. Within moments the sound of his soft snoring filled the room.

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_Next: A moment __i__n __t__h__e__ silen__c__e __o__f__ grief (to be posted with Chapter 21)_


	4. Good-Bye

Note: Takes place later in the day from Chapter 21. Implied sex, nudity, and act of intimate-partner violence.

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Cheng Jien sat up in a rustle of sheets, her eyes puffy from recent tears. Nakas muttered and shifted where he lay sleeping with an arm across her waist; she stroked a raised welt on his cheekbone that was darkening to blue-black. She then bent to put her lips to it, whispering clumsy apologies.

She slipped out of bed and went to a table under the window, her bare feet quiet on the wooden floor, and took out two drinking cups from a cabinet to set them on the table across from each other. Sitting down was too sudden, as though her legs had given out.

When she reached out to pour for the cup across the table, the drink sloshed from the bottle before she steadied her hand. She poured in her own cup without spilling, and put the bottle down with a clack that sounded somehow final.

She put her hand around the cup but did not lift it, just turned it between the pads of thumb and middle finger. Her jaw trembled as she fixed her gaze on the empty seat opposite, the untouched cup with the spilled wine pooled next to it.

Her entire form drooped lower in her chair as she hid her eyes behind a hand. A shaky sigh escaped, and for a long while she made no sound and did not move as shadows slanted across the room with the movement of the sun.

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_Next: Princess Azula wants a word explained to her._


End file.
